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Making Cycling Difficult: Reverse Altitude Training

Step 1, don’t ride your bike for an extended period of time. If you feel the need to save face, I guess you could do a couple of commutes and group rides, but keep it minimal.

Step 2, accept an invitation to go ride in a location that sits about 5,000 feet above where you live. It’s an added bonus if the weekend when you are going to ride there is a weather warning of 40 mph sustained winds and gusts over 50. Of course, the bonus is for those that take difficult to the next level.

You all know I have been off the bike. I’ve gotten fatter than usual and I really didn’t care. I’ve taken up some new hobbies and some old ones have been calling my name pretty loud lately. But when Super D asked if KB and I would be interested in riding the Rainbow Rim over Memorial weekend, I couldn’t refuse. Luckily, I was in the middle of making the schedule, so a few copy/paste operations and I had the time.

When I accepted the invitation, I was unaware of what the weather was going to do which is probably good because I wouldn’t have accepted the invitation. The weather was forecasted to be anything but nice this past weekend. Big, fierce winds all across the board. Oh and temperatures dropping significantly.

Nonetheless, the Alliance was determined to ride and we headed toward the North Rim Friday when I got off work. The wind was whipping. We were all a little concerned about pitching tents in the dark with 40+ mph winds and Super D was not hesitant to keep the truck moving quickly to avoid such a scenario. However, there was no way we could avoid a trip into Crazy Jug Canyon, the sign was way too inviting with it’s neon cowgirls and all.

We found the Meinkey-mobile a little before 9, just as the sun was dropping over the horizon. We had just enough light to get the tents set up and then Roller Coaster Kim took care of our nutrition with some veggies from their garden. This also gave us a great reason to fire up the Camp Chef which served as our campfire for the next couple of days. Seeing that it was going to be a busy weekend for the Forest Service they imposed a campfire ban.

It should go without saying that at this point we had a couple of brews.

Morning came early. Early as in we were all up before 6:30. When I rolled out of the down covering that was keeping me warm, the Suunto said it was 48 degrees. Pretty warm for a morning at 8,000 feet. By the time we had finished breakfast and were standing around wondering what to do, the Suunto had dropped to 38.

At this point we had had enough. Super D busted out his top-secret fire ring and we built a fire. The top-secret fire ring secured the fire and kept us all warm without us ever risking setting the whole North Rim ablaze. And then we started to think about not riding. It was cold, windy and the sun was nowhere to be seen. The idea of suiting up for a ride did not sound appealing. Then we checked the time keeper and realized it was still before 8. Everyone breathed a little easier and we stoked the fire.

Then the inevitable happened, it was time to get moving. The Alliance slowly pulled itself out of the clenched grip of the fire and began to kit up. This took us about an hour (see above paragraph). We all agreed we would go as far as seemed like a good idea.

Knowing that the great lobster in the sky Bob loves the Alliance, it should come as no surprise that once we got riding the sun started to poke his head around the clouds and we warmed up a bit. We played the balancing act of zipping up and zipping down our vests/wind jackets for the entirety of our ride. And we never rested on the edge or under shade.

When this plan was hatched by Super D, it was to ride the whole trail in one day. That would be 18 out and 18 back. Seeing that it was freezing, the wind was kicking our asses and we are the Mooseknuckler Alliance, we made it to the half way point. We ate lunch in the sunniest spot we could find and contemplated our next move.

We turned around, giving us 18 miles for the day and leaving 18 for Sunday.

Back at the Temporary Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance World Headquarters, we chased the sun in our camp chairs and “enjoyed the hell” out of the company that was to be had. KB took 7,362 naps, meaning she pretty much slept from the time we got done riding until the next morning. She’s entitled as she just started her summer break.

About the time we were ready for dinner, the wind stopped. We all cheered and threw money to the peasants. And then hunkered down for a long cold night huddled around our Camp Chef.

24 degrees. It was 24 degrees when I dragged my ass out of the tent Sunday morning. I rejoiced in this fact for I had stayed warm all night long in my 15 degree sleeping bag. I’m always a little hesitant when I get a new bag as you never quite know how those ratings are going to stack up to real world scenarios. But it was still only 24 degrees.

We got our Camp Chef going once again and Super D made some coffee. We huddled around chasing the sun and eating breakfast. Unlike the day before, the temperature actually raised as the day progressed. We broke camp and headed to Locust Point, where we had turned around the day before. By the time we started riding, I felt good in a short sleeve jersey. Day 2 felt like heaven. The singletrack was fast and flowy and Bob continued to smile on us all day long. We cut about 1.5 hours off our 18 mile time from Saturday.

The weather was so awesome that we stayed in the parking lot sipping brews for an extra hour or so after we were done.

The weekend reminded me of how much I love riding and also that I may need to ride a little bit more if I plan on having any kind of fun when Brian Head season hits. Being fat and out of shape only becomes exacerbated when the air gets thin…

Out.

Editor’s Note: You may notice that there are no photos of this trip. This is not because I forgot my camera, but rather that I found my camera to be turned on when I tried to take my first pic on the edge. Apparently leaving it on will drain the battery and leave us with no pictures.

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